S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC               NetLab Director
Department of Sociology                  725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388
University of Toronto  Toronto Canada M5S 2J4   twitter:@barrywellman
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman             fax:+1-416-978-3963
NETWORKED:The New Social Operating System. Lee Rainie & Barry Wellman
MIT Press         http://amzn.to/zXZg39         Print $19; Kindle $16
Old/newCybertimes  http://bit.ly/c8N9V8  It's still rock & roll to me

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As I was the ASA's first (and only) Electronic Advisor way back in 1995-1997, and was in on the begining of ASA listservs, I am in a unique position to address the mystery: why are there 2 lists (not only for CITASA but for some other sections, such as Community & Urban Soc). The ASA originally wanted one list per section, in which all section members would be automatically enrolled. However, only section officers (or even only the section chair) would be permitted to post. In short, it would be a distribution list, not a community list -- or at best, the poor section chair would spend a lot of time receiving emails and reposting them. So I suggested that sections be allowed to run their own list, in addition to the official ASA distribution list. This would list would be voluntary (you would have to ask to join), all members would be able to post, and it might even be open to non-ASA members (as a recruiting tool and an accomodation to foreign scholars). This is the list in which we all participate. I think this dual setup works well. If you want to get sociological about it, the dual lists is yet another instance of the continuing struggle between centralized control and decentralized networking - something that the late Rob Kling and I have each written about. The same central-decentral shows up in another policy compromise that I set up. The ASA head office wanted each section to conform to an ASA-designed template. (Remember, this was the early days of HTML, when web design was haaard to do.) I, and others, wanted each section to design and maintain their own website. The compromise is that we have both: when you click on "Sections" from asanet.org, you get the ASA template. However, there is a visible button that will quickly take you to the section's own-design website, if there is one. This is ancient history - 15 years ago, However, an Internet year is a dog year. Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:@barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 NETWORKED:The New Social Operating System. Lee Rainie & Barry Wellman MIT Press http://amzn.to/zXZg39 Print $19; Kindle $16 Old/newCybertimes http://bit.ly/c8N9V8 It's still rock & roll to me ________________________________________________________________________